IOR/L/PS/20/CA3

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1874. The letters are dated December 1862-December 1863. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

• Abstracts of Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from the Resident at Aden
• Abstracts of Letters received from the Resident at Aden
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from the Governor of the Straits Settlements.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:

• Military affairs, including: the deployment, organisation, transport, and supply of units; deployments of Indian troops in China; the despatch of troops to New Zealand [Invasion of the Waikato, 1863-1864]; and destitution among ‘Native’ [Indian] regiments
• The aftermath of the ‘Mutiny’ [Indian Uprising of 1857], including the communal reorganisation of military units, the distribution of the ‘Prize Funds’ of property looted by British forces, and proposed police reforms
• Public works, including railways, canals, roads, irrigation, docks, and land reclamation
• Revenue and expenditure
• Judicial affairs, in particular the appointment of judges
• Frontier affairs, including conflict with Cossyah [Khasi] resisters in the Cossyah and Jynteah [Jaintia] Hills on the Northeast Frontier, and an expedition against ‘Hindoostanee Fanatics’ [followers of Syed Ahmad Barelvi and rebel Sepoys] and allied tribes on the Northwest Frontier
• Land issues, including: changes to laws concerning the ownership and purchase of land; plantations of cash crops including coffee, tea, and cotton; the sale of ‘waste lands’; forestry; and religious endowments
• The effect of high prices for raw cotton on Indian weavers
• Emigration from India to French colonies
• Communications issues, including postal services in the Persian Gulf
• Relations of the Government of India with Burmah [Myanmar/Burma], Persia [Iran], Afghanistan, and Bootan [Bhutan]
• Affairs concerning Princely States, including pensions and stipends for local Rulers and questions of succession
• Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
• Banking
• Epidemics
• Education
• Arrangements for the abolition of the Indian Navy
• Monitoring of the ‘native’ press in Bengal
• The activities of rival colonial powers, including: the possible French colonisation of Little Aden and an agreement with the Chief of the Akrabi [‘Aqrabī Shaikhdom] to prevent this; planned French colonisation of Obokh [Obock]; and Dutch colonial expansion in Sumatra
• Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, in particular relations with neighbouring states including the Foudtheli [Faḍlī] and Lahej [Laḥij] Sultanates; the slave trade, including anti-slavery treaties with the rulers of Maculla [Al Mukalla] and Shuhur [Al Shihr]; defences and public works
• Affairs in East Africa, in particular an attack on British sailors at Cape Guardafui and subsequent relations with the Mijerteyn [Majertīn Sultanate]
• Affairs in Beloochistan [Baluchistan], including the construction of telegraph lines in Mekran [Makran] which is resisted by the Persian Governor of Bunpoor [Bampur], and a revolution in Khelat [Kalat] bringing Shere Dil Khan [Mīr Shīrdil Khān Balūch] to power
• Affairs in and around the Malay Peninsula, including: a succession struggle in Pahang; the claims of Siam [Thailand] to sovereignty in Tringanu [Trengganu] and Kalantan [Kelantan]; and the arms trade in the Straits Settlements.

The primary correspondents are:

• The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
• The Government of India
• The Government of Bombay
• The Resident in Aden
• The Governor of the Straits Settlements.

The abstracts were printed and bound in London, and each one includes the following colophon: ‘LONDON: Printed by GEORGE E. EYRE and WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, Printers to the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.’